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‘Do you like the music i’m playing?” Seb asks Mia
Bear with me, this is a long one….
I flew from LAX to Manila via Incheon Korea onboard an Asiana Flight last week, I originally was reading one of the Bourne books The Bourne Dominion which I bought a couple years back that I never got to reading.
After two and a half hours into the flight, my eyes had tired and needed something to focus on other than small letters on small pages; as I flipped through the movies via the entertainment console, I wandered into LA LA LAND.
I’ll admit, I didn’t actually watch the movie when it came out and didn’t even care even when it had been nominated for a gazillion categories at last year’s Oscars, but just like the proverbial cat, curiosity got the best of me.
I figured, what the heck, I’m from LA, the movie obviously is an LA story, I had no idea if it was or not, I just figured since it had LA on the title, that it was.
Boy was I pleasantly surprised.
BACKGROUND
Seb and Mia.
Boy is passionate about Jazz, Girl is passionate about acting.
Boy meets girl, in the most awkward of situations; she got her car towed middle of the night, and LA will do this to you if you don’t pay attention where you park; so, she walks, since she’s broke and an aspiring actress, all the way home and wanders into a nondescript bar, a jazz joint, where Seb, the Jazz piano man was playing.
But before that the movie centers around Mia an aspiring actress who constantly auditions every chance she gets. Always getting the ‘door shut in her face’ as she hustles to her next opportunity.
LA is a cruel place, many a dreams die here, you’d see aspiring actors, actresses, waiting tables, waiting for their big break. That’s the reality.
I guess this is what initially got me hooked as I delved deeper into the movie.
I must admit, I had my pre-conceived notion that the movie was just a chick flick, with one of those empty, hollow, non-imaginative storylines, the reason why I don’t watch movies anymore.
I just mistakenly thought it was one of those.
I just had to get past the opening musical part though which to me seemed dragging, but nonetheless, an essential part of the whole story since this is where our subjects first get to meet, amusingly in LA traffic at that.
Anyways, so Mia auditions, unsuccessfully, and ends up being set up by her friends to go to a party with ‘industry’ folks to network, that’s where she gets her car towed.
So, she walks and wanders into this bar with the sound of piano Jazz music that engrossed her.
Background about Sebastian, ‘Seb’ for short; a seemingly accomplished Jazz pianist who is passionate about not letting the purity of the music, Jazz music die.
THEIR JOURNEY
To keep himself alive, Seb has this side gig at this restaurant Mia wanders into, where the owner doesn’t want him to play anything but the set music, and on this particular night, Christmas Eve, he tells him to play Holiday music.
Being the music purist that he is, the conflict is that he’s raring to play HIS music, but is held back by the owner who only wants him to play what he’s paying him to play.
There is a lull and the camera briefly focuses on Seb’s anguished face and hands on the piano keys, just raring to go.
So he finishes his set of holiday music and instinctively plays ‘his’ Jazz ensemble; which Mia hears from outside the restaurant which entices her to come in.
She gazes at him as he stood up, and the shot is just awesome, as the scene depicts Seb standing up after his seemingly ‘maginificent’ Jazz set, as if waiting for the audience to applaud, and the camera then pans wide to show the folks still going about their business chatting, paying no attention to what had just happened, or what he just played.
At this point, Mia was the only one impressed, out of the myriad of people in the room, NO ONE was paying attention.
The funny part of this sequence was when the owner fired him on the spot for disobeying his orders.
So as Seb stood and turned to Mia, and she looks at him, and he walks toward her, the camera does a play into making it appear they were going to meet face to face; then he walks past her brushing her aside, storming off in disgust for being fired; and she having the look of being spurned, was like, “what just happened?”
I love that Damian Chazelle the Director, shows the emotions of the story, and kudos to Emma Stone, who won the best actress by the way and rightly so, and poor Ryan Gosling who should have won but sadly didn’t, who were excellent in this movie, the chemistry, the emotions, the facial expressions, a lot of the movie was just focusing on their faces and showing what they felt in certain scenes, it was magical.
THE RELATIONSHIP
They finally get to meet, again, at another ‘industry’ party, code for Hollywood networking gatherings, where Seb gets hired as a keyboard player for an 80s cover band, hired as the entertainment for this party.
Frankly, I love this touch, being a teenager and growing up in the 80s, I’d say it’s the best decade musically, so I gave points for that on this movie.
She finally meets him, he meets her, and they start off their romantic relationship.
One scene after the party, as they got their keys and Seb walked Mia to her car, which they were trying to find, they stumble into this hillside view overlooking LA. They break into song and dance, which by the way is the hallmark of this movie.
I really believe this is also a story within the story; since it took a lot of guts on the part of the producers and director to even bring this musical to the screen, since who watches musicals anymore? Wasn’t it buried in the 60s? so kudos again to the production team for having the guts to pursue their passion and getting this film done.
Back to the song and dance, in the tradition of the Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and the Danny Kaye era of choreographed dancing and singing, IT was just refreshingly different.
For me, one of the characteristics of really great actors is if they can do it all, and Ryan and Emma really nailed it in this movie, they were the total package, acting, singing, dancing.
She, passionate about her acting, believing, striving, working toward fulfilling her dreams of finally getting the break she needs of making it to the big screen.
He, passionate about Jazz music, the core of what he believes and the essence of his being; playing his music from the heart, making people love it, saving the genre, and one day being able to open up his own Jazz bar and make it relevant again.
What really impressed me was the way the movie touches on the human struggle; of having a dream, working at it, having life beat you up, persevering, getting knocked down, getting back up, not knowing if you’ll make it but also not giving up on the dream, fueled by the passion from the inside.
To tell you the truth, having lived in LA now for 25 years, and seeing the culture first hand; seeing artists, aspiring artists, being beaten up by the system that most of their dreams shatter and very few really get to make it, makes this movie real and hit close to home.
IT GETS REAL
Tying this all into the personal finance aspect, I know, it took forever, but here it is; and it’s just magnificent that even in movies, we see these conflicts, dynamics, play out.
The financial struggles, which is what most people endure, and I guess to a great extent is the reason why most endure hardships in pursuing their dreams to fulfill their longing of financial success; is typical of the common man’s struggle to be free, financially free, free from the bondages of lack or need.
PERSONAL IMPLICATIONS
Most of us feel the financial pressures of life. We got knocked down by debt, school loans, stupid tax that seem to haunt us at every turn.
Most of us have dreams of being financially independent, although most have no clue how to pursue it; but the dream is there, and some of us, who have passion, drive, ambition, and the ‘GRIT’ to tough it out and be ‘DEBT FREE’ and pursue financial security; the struggle is real.
Just like in this movie, Seb had to settle with a band he didn’t believe in in order to pay the bills and put his dream on hold, is typical of us working our financial plan, doing our side hustles, to earn us enough money to plunk down into paying down our debts; the struggle is real.
Or when Mia, having the constant door slammed in her face as she continually auditions, and having enough courage to pursue her dreams and passion, digging deep inside of her to write her own play, being encouraged by Seb of course, who sees the dream in her and is 110% supportive of her, having none other than her best interest at heart.
This every bit reminds me of my Moira, being the ever-supportive wife, encouraging me to pursue my career, knowing full well that her own ambitions of having and starting her own business will be put on hold, knowing that what we’re ultimately striving for is for the good of our family.
Our struggle; yeah, working to dig ourselves out of our own financial holes, is a daunting task, but with loving, supporting people around us, encouraging and egging us on, really helps as we journey to get to our dreams.
STRUGGLES
So Mia gets her play written up and finally produces it and hires a venue to do the production, Seb was busy touring the gig he was playing on and had to miss Mia’s opening.
The scene candidly portrays every actor’s struggle of finally being on the verge, getting out on the stage, bright lights, the leap of faith.
Mia not seeing the audience of course due to the lights on her, was hoping for people to come, hopeful that people would like her story, hoping to get her break; but sadly, after the lights go out and making her bows, only to see a handful of people, and worse missing Seb, the love of her life to not be there to support her; really caused her to break.
The scene then shows her outside the theater, and Seb finally getting there, apologizing for missing it, missing her big ‘leap’; and Mia being disappointed and calling it quits on her career, relationship with Seb, and everything she had worked for up to that point.
This is very typical of ALL our struggles; where we work hard to do the right things, but still being disappointed that it’s taking forever to get where we want to be.
But by overcoming ‘ADVERSITY’ we know that when the time comes and our number is up, it’s much sweeter and more fulfilling.
If you haven’t yet read Malcolm Gladwell’s awesome book “Outliers” where he studies great men and women whom about their success, how they eventually got to be overcomers, the treaties being that eventually what caused these people to be successful were seemingly bad breaks at the outset that eventually turned into stepping stones to their goals, the proverbial setback to setup kinda deal; that is typical in a never give up attitude.
ARE WE TOUGH ENOUGH
We have to tough it out because life is tough, we will face adversity, no one is immune!!!
Adversity will come at us, financial struggles will happen, we hope that we won’t have to go through them but we will, most people do, I’m in it, a great multitude of people are currently financially burdened, in debt, and clueless how to get out.
We ALL have hopes, we all have dreams, from the time we were born, we aspire to be someone of significance, we can’t help it, we ALL have greatness embedded in us; GOD put that in there, ALL of us have a big hole, a big longing for significance.
Naturally, we try to fill it with every material thing we could imagine that ultimately causes us to be indentured; but we shouldn’t have to be, we shouldn’t have to be materialistic.
Culture tries to mold us into what it thinks is appropriate, telling us what to buy, what to wear, what to aspire for, these all cost something; and for most of us, costs our life.
WE CAN
LA LA LAND is a great mirror of society, of the struggle, of Love.
A depiction of the indomitable human spirit that overcomes in spite of, despite impossible odds; it’s a mirror of what can be if we just stick to our guns, pursue our passion, have the endurance to tough it out, and to ultimately WIN.
Seb and Mia both understood their roles, to be supportive of each other, loving unconditionally even when they knew their consequent careers would tear them apart into different places.
But therein lies the greatness of the portrayal that the movie seeks to impart.
All of us have the capacity to love, all of us have the capacity to sacrifice, the question is will we?
Are we up to it?
Will we step aside to see our loved one have their dream?
Will we be mature enough to give way?
One thing I love about my wife Moira is she has this spirit, she loves unconditionally, and believes in me and supports me, which is what married people should be doing for each other.
That’s what makes me love her all the more and what continually drives me to strive toward our dream, one step at a time; to be debt free and financially independent, to be successful in life and finances that will eventually pave the way to enable us to do the things we want later one in life, and includes making sure our daughter future and her future family is well taken care of, which is what every parent should aspire for.
THE CONFLICT
Going back to the scene where Mia finally gets her big break, this after she breaks up with Seb, after the disastrous first night of her bombed play.
Seb one night gets a call from an agent looking for Mia for a casting call, so he gallantly tracks her down, she upped and left LA totally and moved back home with her parents in a small town in Nevada which the name escapes me.
The Hollywood magic was Seb finds her, gets her to the audition, she gets the part, and they end up somewhere at Griffith Park where they now are faced with the reality of their situation, the reality that their ‘big breaks’ if you will, will eventually cause them to break apart.
Here’s where the rubber met the road, the grown-up part of the film.
Where they both had to confront the fact that by supporting each other and making sure they both succeeded, they get to the point where they have to choose, career or relationship?
WE CAN LOVE
LA LA LAND is a love story. It really portrays the human spirit as it should be, sacrificing for the better good.
Mia and Seb knew they were at a crossroad; they both knew they love each other, the question was asked … “Where are we with this”?
They eventually knew that they loved each other enough to sacrifice, to give way, to make sure one succeeded, even at the expense of the other.
LA LA LAND is a story of unconditional love, and that for me is the magic of this story; it’s not only a personal finance story, a feel good rocky kind of overcoming all odds story, but it’s a real look at what can happen when human beings love each other unconditionally.
5 years after, Mia gets back to LA.
They find each other again accidentally as Mia stumbles into ‘Seb’s’, the jazz bar; they both are now successful, and the neat thing about the next scene is when their eyes meet, she walks out but looks back, he looks back at her, no words, just facial expressions, you gotta see it, they were both awesome, they don’t have to say anything but let their faces portray the emotion or message they want to get out, and both Ryan and Emma, or Seb and Mia, successfully did that, I tell you, you gotta see it if you haven’t and if you have, you know what I mean.
FINALLY
We’re finally landing this thing….
One great sequence of scenes is when Mia finally comes face to face with Seb, at Seb’s, the logo of which she designs for him at the beginning part of the movie; and she begins to have an alternate flashback of what might have been between the two of them.
Application in real life to me is yes we may get to fulfill our dreams and be wildly successful, but that comes with a lot of sacrifice and opportunities capitalized, we either get to our crossroad and pick right or pick left and go with it.
The bottom line is we stick to the consequences of our actions, good or bad.
We should be able to look back in hindsight and be able to say, yeah, we did this and it eventually led to this; now if we put in the work, we will evidently get to our goal, the alternative is we look back later down the road if we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities and say “what if”? and that would really be disastrous.
I’d rather take the chance to get my dream moving in the right direction and be able to say that I’ve put it all on the line, instead of having regrets and reflecting back saying “oh well” rather than “what if”, credit to Pat Flynn for that line ????
FINAL FINAL THOUGHTS
AGAIN, final thoughts; one is I promise not to write long boring posts like this anymore, the other is, I realize that life is life, it’s hard, and it really wears you down; especially when you’re on a journey, a debt free journey at that.
But my encouragement to you is to find people who will journey with you, in my case I have a loving, supporting, unconditional wife and daughter who overwhelmingly support me knowing that I’m eventually striving for all our dreams.
Find a partner, find love, find inspiration, find encouragement, find purpose.
We will get knocked down but we all should get up again, get past rejection or negativity and move forward.
As we work our plans, our side hustles; as we wait our tables waiting on our big break, our number to get ‘called’; we should all remember there is inspiration around us, everywhere, even in a seemingly corny movie such as LA LA LAND.
LEARN life, LEARN love, continually LEARN, and get moving, get going.
HUSTLE ON
Have you seen the movie? Am I overly over reacting? You might have loved it or hated it, tell us what you think, leave us a message, inspire us or be inspired ????
Peace and Blessing to you All.
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